The basic concept of launching an aircraft by attaching it to a structure which revolves about a fixed axis and subsequently releasing it from the structure is well known in the art.
In civilian space, due to population growth, urban sprawl, etc., many airports disappeared, and available land which is suitable for commercial and recreational (e.g., radio controlled model airplanes) runway becomes less and less. In military space, battlefields are dynamic and fluid, and there are often cases that nearby airfields are desirable but not practical or feasible.
Previously, some exemplary ways to launch and recover unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are: throwing light-weight UAV by hand to launch it and landing it on its underbelly; Launching UAV by catapult and recovering it by net. Obviously larger and heavier UAV cannot be launched by hand. There are risks with catching UAV by net: UAV might be damaged during impact with net; UAV might fall to ground in case that it gets out of grip of net.
The present invention is inspired by folk tale Flying Carpet (also called Magic Carpet) from One Thousand and One Nights. While flying carpet was used to transport people in the tale, the invention here devises a flying carpet like device for takeoff, landing and general carrying purpose. Such a moving device forms a portable synthetic runway.
In the Thomas J. Gregory patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,206, the invention provides a method and apparatus for launching a remotely piloted aircraft is disclosed wherein the aircraft, is revolved about a fixed pivot point until a pretermined speed is reached whereupon the vehicle is released from the launching apparatus. The vehicle is attached to one end of a rotatable arm, the imbalance on the arm being counteracted by a counter weight attached to the opposite end. The counter weight is released from the arm at the same time as the aircraft so as to avoid structural damage to the apparatus caused by rotation in the unbalanced condition. The arm is oriented such that it rotates in a plane inclined obliquely to the local gravitational field of the launch site. The supporting structure for the arm may be made stationary, or may be attached to a mobile vehicle for ground transportation.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,028,952 B2 issued on Oct. 4, 2011 to James M. Urnes, Sr. disclosed a system to launch and recover an UAV aircraft has a pole member attached to a deck of a ship. An arm member is attached to the pole member and extends away from the pole member in an approximately horizontal direction. The arm member is able to move rotationally and vertically on the pole member. An attachment mechanism is attached to a distal end of the arm member for holding and capturing the UAV aircraft. Momentum of the UAV aircraft causes the arm member to move rotationally around and vertically on the pole member when the UAV aircraft is coupled to the attachment mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,206 fails to at least teach or suggest how to land a flying vehicle using the same device or set of apparatus. Furthermore, it has a launching step that requires releasing counterweight at the same time when aircraft is released.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,028,952 B2 does not have a built-in balancing mechanism, instead it relies on weight of the ship to counter the imbalance caused by rotating UAV, therefore it's not portable. Furthermore, it does not provide means for UAV to land on conventional wheels.
The present invention is capable of both launching and landing aircraft, and is portable since the system can be easily setup when it's moved to a new location. Also the present invention does not require throwing away counterweight, thus poses no hazard associated with fast moving counterweight. Both taking off and landing on conventional wheels, and taking off and landing by hooking to top of aircraft are supported. There are also several other utilities built in the present invention to facilitate aircraft to take off and land. There are mechanisms to extend rotation radius to reduce path curvature to make it easier for the landing aircraft to follow the landing path. There are wings attached to the landing pads to generate lift to help support weight of aircrafts and maintain dynamic balance of the system. The present invention is also capable of launching and recovering 2 aircrafts simultaneously and none of these references presented this capability. This capability can be very useful in urgent battle field situations. Thus the present invention is seen to patentably distinguish over each of these references alone or in combination.